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Houston (CBS Houston)– The 2-10 Houston Texans are having a ‘joke’ of a season and Antonio Smith wanted to know Monday night why everyone was taking his jokes seriously.

“It tickles me how much the country loves the Patriots so much that they take everything so seriously,” Smith said. “I don’t know what to say about it. I guess no media is bad media, thank you for getting me on ESPN for taking Tonestradamus’ word and his soothsayer abilities to new heights. I don’t know what else to say about it.”

Smith had said on Sunday after the Texans’ 34-31 loss to the Patriots, that the halftime adjustments made on them were “fishy” and that teams are either “spying” or “scouting” them.

However, after national criticism and media backlash the nine-year veteran changed his tune a bit or maybe his original tune was misunderstood.

“I’m always joking. I didn’t mean any of it,” Smith said Monday afternoon. “I was talking to y’all like I would be talking to my boys on the sideline. ‘Hey man, how did they know that, man? They must’ve been spying or something like that.’ There are two different ways of saying, ‘Hey man, they’re spying on us, man. It’s a conspiracy going on.’ Instead of saying, ‘Hey man, how’d they know that we were calling our strength to this certain side off of this certain man. They must be spying on us or something.’ There are two different ways of saying it. That’s kind of the way I said it.”

Smith received jabs from his teammates and head coach Gary Kubiak was less than thrilled about the comments made about the Patriots.

“No, I have the utmost respect for their organization, their players, their coaches and their head coach,” Kubiak said Monday. “The standard that they’ve been setting for a long, long time in this league, they did a great job yesterday, been doing it a long time.”

The media asked if Smith understood how using the word ‘spying’ with the Patriots might be a big deal.

“Oh man, come on. Do we have no sense of humor?” Smith continued, “You would have to realize that half the stuff I say is spontaneous and witty. I hardly ever think about it.”

The last part of the questioning Monday night could sum up this whole ‘joke’ of a situation.

Smith: “When did America become so serious? We have no sense of humor. Yes, I realize now that everybody loves the Patriots and that saying the word ‘spying’ because they got accused of spying before. I don’t know if they got caught or what…

Reporter: ‘They got caught’

Smith: “Oh, well, I’m sorry that I said the word spying because of a prior engagement of them being caught spying before and it tied to me. Now, what I did say it, I said it, yes, but I was like joking and having fun with it. It don’t matter to me. Those are the battles between coaches. That’s the schemes and different things like that. That’s between coaches. My battle is trying to figure out how to beat the guy in front of me. When it comes to the point of me feeling like it’s serious enough to say they’re cheating and that’s how they beat us, no, it’ wasn’t like that.”